


The Consequences

by DemonRomantic



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: M/M, Some Fluff, Spoilers!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 11:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8622403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonRomantic/pseuds/DemonRomantic
Summary: After Sebastian is nearly killed, Ciel displays genuine concern for his butler's well-being.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucyrose12](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucyrose12/gifts).



> I do not own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji or any of the characters herein. This work contains spoilers from the manga. This one's for Lucyrose12.

The Consequences  
By DemonRomantic

Sebastian fell to his knees on the planks of the small lifeboat, clutching at the still bleeding wound in his side. It was hard to discern his blood from that of the reanimated corpses he had just slain. His master knelt beside him, still shivering from the cold and the shock of what had just transpired. They drifted a far distance from the remaining lifeboats, where Lizzy and the others were. 

“Sebastian!” Ciel cried, crawling closer to his demon butler as he fell.

The earl was not used to seeing his butler so weakened, but then again, he had just been impaled with a death scythe. Sebastian clenched his teeth and attempted to keep himself from collapsing fully. 

“The blow of the death scythe… was hard even for me.” The demon wheezed.

Ciel stared at the large stain that had blossomed in Sebastian’s side, close enough to where his heart would have been if he were a human. Did demons even possess hearts? Ciel supposed that without a heart, Sebastian wouldn’t be able to bleed, but he had seen far stranger things…

“Sebastian…” 

He was cut off by a loud coughing fit from the butler, and Sebastian raised his hand to his mouth, spitting blood. 

“This is the first time I’ve seen you in such a state.” Ciel’s words were riddled with concern, but Sebastian responded by apologizing.

“Pardon me for being so ungraceful…” The demon moved his hand back over his bleeding ribs, attempting to bow in his usual manor but unable to do so with his current injuries. “I am unfit to be the butler of the Phantomhive family.”

Ciel frowned. “No, you are more than qualified to serve the name of Phantomhive. The death scythe… it nearly killed you. I’m surprised you can still keep yourself up.” 

“It is not without difficulty, but if I could not survive the blow of a death scythe, then what kind of butler would I be?” 

“…Sebastian, where exactly do demons and grim reapers come from?” 

The butler looked at his master in surprise. “I thought that you didn’t concern yourself with the origins of other beings such as myself?”

“I can’t have you breaking the contract by getting yourself killed following my orders. I need to know exactly what it is we’re dealing with, and how much you can handle so that I don’t have you running into a situation blindly for my sake.”

“Young Master…” Sebastian was moved by the uncharacteristic empathy his master was displaying towards him. “As I understand it, grim reapers, angels, and demons all start out as humans. Grim reapers are created from the souls of those who claim their own lives, while angels are those who have sacrificed their life for another’s.”

“And demons?” Ciel asked, his blue eye smoldering with curiosity.

Sebastian sighed. “Demons are those who take the life of another living person. We are forever damned to need that which we so blindly took for granted. Even as we come to realize the beauty and uniqueness of every soul, we are eternally punished to devour them.”

Ciel was a little surprised, although he wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting to hear. He knew that Sebastian had killed before entering his service, but he wasn’t aware that he had once been human himself. “Do you remember it then? Your human life?” 

Sebastian smiled, a hollow empty smile, memories causing ghosts to dance across his face. “It was a very long time ago, during the 13th century. I was in my mid-twenties when I took the life of my first human, though I was still a human myself at the time. It wasn’t to procure their soul, however, but their money. It’s strange to think about now, but before I became detached from human desires, I was enamored with the idea of becoming wealthy. It seemed to me that riches were the answer to procuring every desire imaginable; fine food, women, luxury, but I was blinded by my greed and soon met my end at the hands of a man whom I had wronged with my thoughtless killing. I thought that, that would be the end for me. That my soul would be cast off into the fires of Hell for all eternity, but instead I awoke with a new form and a new purpose.”

“Hell is not a place, you see, at least not outside of your own mind. When I died, my soul remained within my body but I was in agonizing hunger that no amount of fine food could slake. Instead, I hungered for human souls. I killed to satisfy that never-ending thirst for their blood. As the decades turned into centuries, I found new methods of catching my prey. I enjoyed playing with them, as a cat does a mouse before it is slaughtered. Obtaining as many human souls as I could consume became my only desire, but I was never satisfied.” 

Sebastian had grown quiet, the frigid sea air along with his wet clothes caused Ciel to shudder. The demon was not ignorant of this, and removed his hand from the wound that had now seemed to stop spouting blood, to wrap it around his master along with his other arm. “You will definitely catch a cold. I do apologize that I could not find warmer accommodations for you, my lord.”

Ciel shook his frozen bangs from side to side. “It must drive you mad… to serve someone such as myself, when it was people like me who drove you to become that way. To kill for wealth.” 

He had wrapped his arms around his knees, his forehead rested against the unscathed part of Sebastian’s chest while the demon attempted to warm him in his embrace. “I no longer envy mankind. It is not within my nature to do so, anymore. As a demon, I can obtain all that which I desired as a human, but I have no use for it now. A just irony, I suppose. I will admit I find it quite aggravating to have gone so long without a meal, though. It’s something I am not accustomed to.”

“Does it make the pain worse? Not having a human soul to give you back your strength?”

“Taking a human’s soul does not give me strength, it merely satisfies my unabashed appetite for a time being. These wounds will mend in a few days, so there is no need for you to worry, Young Master. I shall be the undaunted butler to the Phantomhive household once more.” 

Ciel placed a delicate hand against the stained vest of his butler, that had already begun to dry. He frowned at the wound. A loud horn startled him out of his reprieve and he looked behind himself to see a large ship on the horizon. 

“It’s a rescue boat.” The wind picked up, but the air was not as chilled as it had been.

Ciel watched the ship as it headed for the lifeboats, glancing back at Sebastian who was wiping away the last drops of blood from his mouth. “Sebastian, I can’t afford to have the butler of the Phantomhive family stay in that state forever. Make sure you rest up when we return to the manor… You did well today.” 

Sebastian stared at his master in bewilderment. “Young Master…” He smiled. “Please stop. I cannot believe I am hearing you say these words…” 

The ship drew closer and they waited to be spotted by it as the other lifeboats had been. Ciel clutched at the coat his butler had offered him after procuring the small vessel. “Sebastian, I want you to tell me something. You do not need to form a contract with a human to claim their soul, correct? That’s why the reapers fear that you will take other souls if you are far away from me, isn’t it?”

Sebastian nodded. “Yes, that is true, Master. A contract simply ensures that your soul can belong only to me, and will not be devoured by another demon should one appear. However, that also means that I cannot take your soul until the contract has been fulfilled or otherwise cancelled on your end.”

“Why even bother with the contract? Why not just take my soul?” 

“If I were to take it now, that would be a breach of the contract. The punishment for which would be eternal exile into an endless void. The reason I bothered to offer the option of our covenant, is because it allows you the time and resources to fulfill your greatest desire, which delivers the soul to its full potential. It’s ripeness, if you will. Feeding upon the souls of those I have not made a covenant with, is like eating nothing but sweets, you are satisfied for a time, but there is no nutrition in it… Something I feel that the Young Master could learn.” He smirked.

Ciel stared at the butler as if trying to find something he couldn’t see. 

“Is something the matter, sir?” 

“…No, it’s nothing. I really hope they have some decent tea aboard that rescue ship.” Ciel said, watching as the ship approached their boat.

“Indeed, Master. I shall fetch some for you as soon as we’re settled on board. I would rather not encounter a storm after this.”

“Agreed.” 

 

Lizzy was beside herself with tears when she saw that Ciel was safe, not leaving him alone for a moment on the trip back to London. Ciel wanted nothing more than to be alone with his butler. Although he had no doubts that Sebastian was healing, he still worried. For a brief instant aboard the Campania, Ciel really thought that the demon had been killed. He thought back to the dinner party he had been forced to throw that resulted in the murders of three of his guests, and the staged murder of Sebastian. His act for the whole set up, had been completely honest, even if he knew that Sebastian had been perfectly fine that time. This was different though, he had never contemplated what would happen if Sebastian really were killed.

His butler of course was still as attentive as ever, but he had to hide the extent of his injuries from Ciel’s family. A normal human would have been dead in an instant from the massive blade. Only the earl could perceive the small winces that the demon occasionally displayed. When they were finally back at the manor, away from Lizzy and her family, Ciel took the opportunity to question Sebastian further. The other servants had all been notified of Sebastian’s wound, keeping the truth of what had caused it a secret by blaming the massive gash on a broken railing. No one was to disturb him while he recuperated, and his duties fell upon Tanaka while the demon slept. 

Ciel quietly opened the door to Sebastian’s quarters. The demon slept on the simple bed that was otherwise kept immaculate to the point you could bounce a coin off the sheets. The earl realized that, aside from the time he had passed out and been faking death, he had never seen Sebastian asleep. He found it quite humorous, seeing as the demon had watched him fall asleep countless times. Sebastian spoke without opening his eyes.

“I thought that no one was to disturb me while I rested? Not even the Young Master.” 

Sebastian cracked his eyes, more exhausted than Ciel had ever seen him. It caused an unfamiliar sense of concern that Ciel had never before felt for his butler, and he didn’t like it. Sebastian was the one person in the entire world that Ciel could count on to always take care of things, he wasn’t supposed to be weakened by something as trivial as a fight with a reaper. Sebastian seemed to catch on to the earl’s thoughts.

“A master should not be witness to such a sorry display from his servant. I do apologize for my current state, my lord. I trust that Mr. Tanaka has been fulfilling his borrowed duties to the utmost in my absence?”

“Yes. Tanaka has been the butler of my family for many generations. He has served the name of Phantomhive since long before I was born. His skills are such that even at his age, he is still one Hell of a butler.” Ciel smirked.

The smirk was returned by Sebastian who sat up in his bed, wearing only his white undershirt. He groaned slightly as the movement caused him pain. Ciel grimaced at the wound concealed beneath the white fabric. Sebastian gave him a weak smile.

“Please, Master, you mustn’t look so downtrodden. It should be nothing more than a scar by tomorrow evening.”

Ciel unconsciously had raised his hand to the brand on his back. “Does it still hurt? Even when you don’t move?” 

Sebastian gave his master a look of surprise before giving him a small smile. “Come now, Young Master. It is not like you to show such worry for the likes of me.”

Sebastian was cut off by his master’s arms around him, taking care not to touch his injury. The demon was taken aback by the sudden action, but placed his hands on the boy’s small back as he did when carrying him. He could feel hot tears soaking into his blouse. 

“You can’t leave me, you understand Sebastian? I can’t lose you, too. Not like them…” His words were cut off by a choking noise as he broke into a sob. 

Sebastian rested his cheek against the top of his master’s head and caressed the back of his hair in comforting strokes. “I’m not going anywhere, Young Master. I am bound to you. Say the word, and I shall always come to heed your call, whatever the distance may be.”

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> So, this one didn't have the spicyness of my other works, but we'll call this my dessert piece for it's sweetness. ;)  
> Thank you again, especially to Lucyrose12 on this one, for reading and leaving your kudos and comments. I shall return with more for your ravenous souls, soon.


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